Wednesday, January 16, 2013

How Many Is Too Many?

How many is too many triathlons for one season?

I realize many factors weigh in to this decision........costs, time, date, family, other races, life in general.

Tris are definitely more expensive than running races but I suspect in my neck of the woods they are not as bad as some other spots. So cost is a factor but unless I go completely crazy not prohibitive.

Schedules......I don't want to plan my whole summer around tris. I want to do other races (maybe) and visit friends (definitely) and have time for family and friends at home. So how many is too many?

And what ones do I choose? I think I want to go back to the three I did last summer. I was originally going to do of the Lake Dunmore series pre broken wrist. This summer they are offering four sprints (the only tris I am considering.) I love this series, I can practice all of the race as often as I want and it is a great spot to do all three disciplines! I would like to do at least 2 of these.

Vermont Sun Triathlon - June 30, August 11, August 25

Lake Dunmore Triathlon- July 21 Cost for each of these is $65.00.

I am already registered for Mascoma Man which was my first tri last year. This year it is on July 27. The cost is $70.00.

I want to do the Circle Tri again this year which was my third tri of the season last year. It is on Labor Day weekend on Sept. 1. It is $65.00.

Here is a new race I want to do but it is the following weekend in Maine. It is called the Pumpkin Man Triathlon and even though it is Maine near the seacoast it is not in the ocean. Huge win! It advertises clam chowder and whoopie pies to eat!!! Even more of a huge win. How could I not do this one? I looked at it last year but it was full. This one costs $85.00 and has 550 racers so it would be the largest tri I have been in.

There was also another tri in NH I liked the looks of called Give Peace a Tri. I was going to do that one pre broken wrist. There is nothing new yet for 2013. This was $43.00 at it's most expensive point.

Plus I joined whatever the triathlon organization is so I don't have to add on to my race fee each time. So I need to do enough tris to make that fee worthwhile!

And of course I may yet see other tris within driving distance I liked the looks of. So I am thinking I may end up doing 6 - 8 triathlons and that doesn't sound so bad. I will not say they are just sprints because when you are talking triathlons that include swimming just doesn't enter into it. So I guess through the writing of this post I am deciding that 6-8 triathlons are not too many!

14 comments:

Sounds like a great season of racing ahead of you! Doesn't sound to me that your goal of 6-8 races is too high if spaced out well enough to recover from each one before heading into the next. Good luck and happy training!!!

It's an individual thing. If you want to train for a specific A race, then you have to get the body trained properly. But if you just want to have a good time and enjoy it, then the sky's the limit. :)

I agree with Jill. If you are having fun, do as many as you want and can afford. If you have a race you want to crush, you need to adjust your training to peak for that race and let the other races be training days. It's tough to spend money for a training day for me.

It sounds like you have a good idea of how many you'll be doing. :)The one I did last year cost $35 I think. I looked at it this morning to see but I can't find the registration info. I found a different one at the same location for Sept and it was $152! No thanks.

Sprint tri's are kinda like 5ks...as long as you're not racing all out every time you could do one every weekend. The longer distances, even Olympics, I wouldn't recommend every weekend but you could easily do 2 a month of those. Half irons take a LOT more energy and I wouldn't recommend more than one or two a year. And the Ironman, I think people that do IM's are crazy...wait, I just called myself crazy. Anyway, I could NOT imagine doing more than one of those a year...though I know a girl who did as many as 10! NUTSO!

About Me

I am an "older" runner who didn't start running until I was 50. I got hooked on running and racing very quickly. It's been awhile since I ran a marathon but I do several halves a year. The big news is that this is the year of the triathlon!